Ian Parks
Ian Parks (born 1959) is an English poet and academic, known for his love poetry. He has been described (by Chiron Review) as "the finest love poet of his generation".Ian Parks, Night Publishing. Web, February 4, 2011. Life Parks was born in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. The son of a miner, Parks grew up during the declining years of the industry - something which was to have a profound effect on his later work. He was educated at Sheffield University and Ruskin College, Oxford. At Oxford he did research into Chartist poetry. From 1986 to 1988 he was writer-in-residence at North Riding College, Scarborough. His first collection of poems, Gargoyles in Winter was published in 1986, the same year in which he received a Yorkshire Arts Award. He was one of the Poetry Society New Poets in 1996. His anthology, An Imprisoned Fire: Chartist poetry, 1838-1848 is forthcoming from Flux Gallery Press. He has taught creative writing at the universities of Sheffield, Hull, Oxford and Leeds, and currently acts as a panelist for the TMA Theatre Awards. He was poetry editor at Dream Catcher magazine from 2000 to 2006 and currently edits poetry for both Litro and Endymion. His poems have appeared in Poetry Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Observer'', The Liberal, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Independent on Sunday, Poetry (Chicago), London Magazine, The Chiron Review, The Rialto, Stand, Acumen, Poetry Greece, Modern Poetry in Translation and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. A selection of his poems appears in ''Old City: New RumoursOld City: New Rumours eds. Gregson and Rumens (Five Leaves Press, 2010) edited by Carol Rumens and Ian Gregson. He is the editor of Born into an Unquiet: T.F. Griffin at sixty. He was a 2012 writer in residence at Gladstone's Library and is currently the RLF Writing Fellow at De Montfort University, Leicester. Writing 'I never started out to be a love poet' Parks states in the preface to his Love Poems 1979-2009''Love Poems 1979, (2009, Flux Gallry Press) - 'there's never been a point where I've set myself an agenda or a strategy. The love poems have just happened, appearing out of the blue and prompted by circumstances. They called and I responded'. "Reading a poem by Ian Parks is like hearing your name spoken in the din of a public place - you hear it regardless of the background noise." Peter Dale. "Ian Parks has an instantly recognisable voice: spare, lyrical, memorable and intense. Whatever subject he addresses - historical, political, romantic - he transforms through the sheer force of his poetic identity." Donald Davie. Reviewing ''Shell Island''back cover of ''Shell Island (Waywiser Press, 2006) Ben Ramm (The Liberal Magazine) wrote: "Ian Parks is the rarest of contemporary poets - a skilled versifier, respectful of his craft, and buoyed up rather than weighed down by its tradition. These poems demonstrate a remarkable aural sensitivity and control. Parks is finely attuned to the landscape's variance, its measured pulse, its echo and persisting memory. Here are sagacious, elegiac verses, at once visceral and tender, local and possessive of an organic unity: this is an impressive collection from an important poet." Reviewing The Landing Stage in AcumenAcumen 2010 William Bedford wrote: 'This could be Eliot, but it isn't... it could be Frost, but again it isn't. Parks has gone beyond his influences. Politics is a moral passion in The Landing Stage and love the theatre of our anguish. This fine poet is hinting at everything we need to know to make us human.' Recognition Parks was made a Hawthornden Fellow in 1991 and was awarded a Travelling Fellowship to the United States in 1994. Publications Poetry *''Gargoyles in Winter''. Hebdon Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK: Littlewood Press, 1985. *''A Climb Through Altered Landscapes''. Leicester, UK: Blackwater, 1998. *''Shell Island''. London & Baltimore, MD: Wayweiser Press, 2006. *''The Cage''. Leeds, UK: Flux Gallery Press, 2008. *''Love Poems''. Leeds, UK: Flux Gallery Press, 2009.Ian Parks's Love Poems, Peony Moon, February 14, 2010. Web, Jan. 11, 2015. *''The Landing Stage''. Belfast: Lapwing, 2010. *''A Paston Letter''. Powys, UK: Rack Press, 2010. Translated *Constantine Cavafy, The Cavafy Variations. Presteigne, UK: Rack Press, 2013. Edited *''Born into an Unquiet: T.F. Griffin at 60''. Leeds, UK: Flux Gallery Press, 2009.Born into an Unquiet: T.F. Griffin at 60, Andrew Oldham's Boneyard, September 8, 2009. Wordpress, Web, Feb. 25, 2016. *''Versions of the North: Contemporary Yorkshire poetry''. Nottingham, UK: Five Leaves, 2013. *''Under the Surface: Mining poetry''. Nottingham, UK: Five Leaves, 2014. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Ian Parks, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 11, 2015. See also * List of British poets References External links ;Poems * "The Arrow Slit" at Horizon Review *Ian Parks: Five Poems at Peony Moon. *Ian Parks at the Poetry Foundation. *Caught in the Net 81: Poetry by Ian Parks (10 poems) ;Audio / video *Ian Parks at YouTube ;About *Ian Parks: "It's always a good time to be a poet", interview with Roy Marshall, 2013 *[http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/?p=1681 review of The Landing Stage] at the Manchester Review Category:1959 births Category:English poets Category:Living people Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:20th-century poets